At the Center for Individual Freedom, I posted a letter my former boss, Bob Livingston, wrote to the New York Times (of course the Times didn’t publish it) complaining about a particularly ill-timed cheap shot by the paper’s self-important columnist, Tom Friedman. The letter is self-explanatory, about Friedman using the “racist” accusation to explain the vast majority of opposition to Barack Obama.

More needs to be said, though. Note the venue at which Friedman made this remark. This was a dinner full of foreign businessmen — a goodwill occasion, an opportunity to put “the best foot forward,” as the saying goes, on behalf of the United States. And, it might be said, these were people who tended to have slightly darker skins than American whites. Even if Friedman really believes his tommyrot — which shows him to be blinkered, delusional, and nasty — this was hardly the time or place to make his ill-conceived point.

Such is the (false) liberal self-image of moral superiority that no occasion is a bad one when one sees a chance to smear one’s opponents for harboring evil thoughts and motives.

One almost wishes Friedman would walk to the edge of his “flat” world . . . and fall off.

Figuratively speaking, of course. He’s white, so of course we wish him no real harm.